WASHINGTON - The breakout star of the National Zoo, the recently born female giant panda cub, is finally getting a name. Millions of people have tuned into the zoo's ever-popular online "panda cam," and more than 115,000 people cast a vote on what the tiny fur ball should be named.

In keeping with Chinese tradition, the zoo will unveil the cub's moniker in a ceremony Sunday - the day she reaches her 100-day mark.

Voters had the opportunity to choose from five names:

-âBao Bao, meaning "precious" or "treasure."

-âLing Hua, meaning "darling" or "delicate flower."

-âLong Yun, which translates to "charming dragon" and represents luck for panda cooperation between China and the United States.

-âMulan, a legendary fifth-century Chinese warrior and the title character in a popular animated Disney film.

-âZhen Bao, meaning "treasure" or "valuable."

The Washington Post talked with Pamela Redmond Satran, co-founder of the baby-name website Nameberry and author of 10 best-selling baby books, about the art and science of baby naming - for humans and for pandas.

Q: Can you explain what goes into selecting a name? What factors do most people consider?

A: I think it's changed a lot over the years. Historically, people's choice of names was often dictated by fairly strict sets of rules that may have been religious or may have been cultural. For instance, Italian families would name the first son after the father's father and the second son after the mother's father. There was a whole protocol.

These days, a lot of those old rules for choosing names have fallen away. There's a new kind of brand awareness and a new awareness of the power of a name to define a person or to telegraph a lot of information about who you are.

Q: How does selecting a name for an animal differ from choosing a name for a human?

A: It doesn't differ as much as you might think, because most animals these days actually get human names. It's much more likely that you'll meet a dog named Max or Bella than you'll meet a dog named Spot.

It seems like choosing a name for the latest animal has become one of the biggest promotional events that zoos all over the country hold. ...

I think one reason that it is so compelling is because the name is one of the few things people get to control, and people really like the idea that they are helping to define that animal's image.

Q: Are there do's and don'ts that should be considered when naming a panda?

A: I was interested that in the list of names for the Washington zoo panda, all of the names were Chinese. I think that most of the pandas that have been named do receive Chinese names, but I was thinking, why does that have to be? I think it's not really a Chinese panda, but a Chinese-American panda, so I think their cultural considerations might have been a little too narrow.

Q: Are you surprised by the zoo's selection of names?

A: I wasn't surprised because they do kind of sound like the names that have been given to other pandas. There are only a handful of pandas born, of course. Maybe someone needs to write a book, "How to Name Your Panda," because it does seem like a lot of people put a lot of thought into this.

A lot of [non-Chinese] American parents are actually interested in Chinese names and Chinese naming traditions with the history in the U.S. of adopting children born in China. The rules are so complex. I wanted to write about it at one point, and I just decided that you can kind of Americanize it and make them more simplistic, but actually there are a lot of considerations - like how the characters look, sound, relate to these elements like wood, wind and water.

Q: Do you have a prediction on which name will be the most popular?

A: I guess I would predict Mulan would be the most popular, but I have the feeling they probably won't name the baby Mulan because it's a little bit embarrassing. I'm not sure. But I do think Bao Bao is pretty cute.

Q: Whose needs should the name serve? The zoo's visitors or the panda?

A: Certainly not the creature. Well, I think it benefits the creature in that it helps the zoo draw attention to their exhibits, increases visits to the zoo, maybe donations and emotional involvement. ... One would hope that what's positive for the zoo would be positive for the animals.

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